


only in the shallow water

by consumptive_sphinx



Series: only in the shallow water [1]
Category: Temeraire - Naomi Novik
Genre: Gen, Selkie AU, character sketch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-12
Updated: 2016-11-12
Packaged: 2018-08-30 15:35:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8538586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/consumptive_sphinx/pseuds/consumptive_sphinx
Summary: (Fact: An octopus has approximately the intelligence of a human five year old.)(Fact: Humans know this, and eat them anyway.)





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [humanradiohead](https://archiveofourown.org/users/humanradiohead/gifts).



_(Fact: Because they often spend months at a time at sea, seals can sleep underwater.)_

_(Fact: Most nights, Tenzing can barely sleep on land.)_

 

 

 

Tenzing takes off his shoes, places them neatly beside each other on the planks, balls his socks, and rolls up his pant legs with crisp folds. He turns so he’s sitting on the edge of the dock with his feet hanging off, facing the ocean.

The surface of the water is wrinkled and a dark, heavy grey, reflecting the thick layer of clouds above his head; the air smells like salt, so thick that Tenzing can almost taste it. What sunlight filters through them makes the whole world look like it’s glowing. Tenzing is the only sign of life; the seagulls are inland this early in the morning. The silence feels like more than the absence of sound, like a presence of its own.

The ocean water is like a breath of fresh air, cold and not quite still. Tenzing will feel sticky with salt later, but for now - he enjoys the feeling, soft on the joints of his ankles, and he enjoys the peace.

 

 

 

_(Fact: There are eels that can move on land as well as in the water.)_

_(Fact: Like Tenzing, they prefer the water.)_

 

 

 

The sky brightens from pewter to platinum as the sun climbs higher, and the birds return. Tenzing stays largely where he is, at the edge of the dock, feet in the ocean. He would take his clothes off entirely and jump in, but there’s always the risk of being found, even if it is still early; being seen enjoying freezing water would lead to questions that Tenzing doesn’t particularly want to answer. His uncles give him enough trouble without knowing why the chest in Tenzing’s father’s room is always locked.

 

 

 

_(Fact: The ocean in Scotland is so cold that a human would succumb to hypothermia in fifteen minutes.)_

_(Fact: Tenzing finds it pleasantly cool.)_

 

 

 

The seals don’t come up to this harbour often.

Tenzing probably shouldn’t be relieved by that, but he is. He misses the sea enough already, without having before him an example of the life he lost every time he goes to visit it.

 _I chose this,_ he reminds himself. _I took my skin off on purpose. I chose to be human. If I wanted to be a seal I should have stayed one._

The reminder is comforting enough inland in Tenzing’s father’s house, with a book in his hand or a horse beneath him, with the air warm on his skin and human sounds filling his ears and his seal-skin locked firmly where he knows he cannot take it back, with the ocean out of sight and out of mind.

Here, out where the land meets the sea, with the salt air heavy on his tongue and the seawater fresh and cold, it only makes Tenzing feel worse.


End file.
